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To: JLAGRAYFOX; cripplecreek; Antoninus; Lazlo in PA; AmericanInTokyo; writer33; napscoordinator; ...
JLAGRAYFOX: "The good news is, these folks that spew hate on this site are in reality, a distinct and tiny minority and mean absolutely nothing in the upcoming election."

I don't hate Romney. I oppose him. There is a difference.

You're right that the anti-Romney-under-any-circumstances people are a small minority of the electorate. However, I strongly disagree that they "mean absolutely nothing in the upcoming election."

When combined with the people who won't publicly attack Romney but won't work aggressively for him, the anti-Romney and the don't-like-Romney groups are a significant part of the Republican base. You don't need to take my word for it. Even Chuck Norris warned in a recent column that he doesn't think Mitt Romney understands the depth of the problem he has among conservatives.

Will this affect the fall election? The problem is that while Obama has successfully motivated his grassroots Democrats, Romney has been mowing down his Republican grassroots. Dole did the same thing in 1996. It wasn't a winning strategy then, and it's even worse now.

Here's a big part of why Romney's method to win the primary doesn't translate into a November victory.

Romney used his personal money and that of close friends and business colleagues to defeat fellow Republicans, but he won't have anywhere near enough to do that against Obama.

Getting grassroots support was important for Dole and Clinton in 1996, but it's far more important today due to campaign financing and the de facto end of the public presidential campaign financing system. To win a national presidential campaign today takes hundreds of millions of dollars, not the tens of millions that Romney has at his disposal, and raising that kind of money requires grassroots support that Romney simply does not have and has actually been alienating. His current goal seems to be to say, "Okay, I know you don't like me, but I'm better than the other guy." Fine, maybe that will get people to vote for him rather than Obama, but it won't get them to pull out checkbooks and write numbers with lots of zeros after them, or to aggressively campaign.

I do believe that the anti-Romney wing of the Republican Party is going to be a significant contributing factor to Romney's defeat this fall, in an election that Republicans should have won by a blowout with any reasonably good candidate.

Obama is so bad that Romney may win anyway, but I don't see it with current polling data, either nationally or in key states. Obama hasn't even begun to use his war chest of finances, and he's still polling well compared to Romney. Yes, I know it's early, and yes, I know it's true that anything can happen between now and November, but I am not happy at all with what I see.

I think conservatives have to come up with a plan for what to do after November, whether Romney wins or loses, since either outcome will be a loss for conservative principles. We can debate which is worse, and that's a legitimate debate, but what's not debatable is that we have two bad candidates, and either of them will do bad things if they're in the White House.

259 posted on 05/03/2012 7:10:03 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
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To: darrellmaurina
We can debate which is worse, and that's a legitimate debate, but what's not debatable is that we have two bad candidates, and either of them will do bad things if they're in the White House.

Only one of them hates America, and will continue to destroy everything conservatives stand for if he gets another four years.

I agree that we need a plan, as conservatives, and that Romney can only be a stopgap, but to consider the damage he will do equal to the complete and possibly permanent destruction that Obama will absolutely do is to absurd.

I'm not willing to throw America into the incinerator, so that there is NOTHING left for my children and grandchildren.

All I can hope for is that those saying that they ARE willing to let Obama destroy the country for four more years in the anonymity of FR, have the brains to not follow through with this absurdity when November rolls around....

265 posted on 05/03/2012 7:27:52 AM PDT by ohioWfan (Proud Mom of a Bronze Star recipient!)
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To: darrellmaurina

Romney actively campaigned in Obama strongholds while ignoring the base. His goal was purely to collect delegates in the most concentrated areas he could get them.

In Michigan, Santorum won 57 of our 83 counties (7 of 14 districts) The districts Romney won, were all concentrated around Detroit. Now he needs to forego most of those districts and win All of the ones he lost.


273 posted on 05/03/2012 7:44:25 AM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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